


Daylight

by Filigree



Series: Earthbound [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Loki is Not Amused, M/M, Pre-Slash, Tony is a Bastard, no graphic content (yet), not compliant with IM3 or TDK, possible future M/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 05:48:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Filigree/pseuds/Filigree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony has been hiding something, and Loki has a right to be angry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daylight

"It should be the Stark-Foster Drive, Tony. You’re the one privatizing real space travel," said Jane, as she blew on her fingers for warmth in the bright, cold sunlight.  

Where Jane Foster went, Thor went. From his place a little apart, Loki watched them as Thor lurked in Foster’s petite shadow. Almost absently Thor reached around her from the back, and clasped her small hands in his.

Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Jane Foster, and Thor huddled together on a viewing platform purported to be a safe distance from the thirty-foot-long, eight-foot-high cylinder tethered horizontally to heavy reinforced concrete blocks. Those, in turn, were pinned by segmented steel-and-adamantium piles driven into the exposed rocks of the northern Canadian tundra. One of the most geologically stable places on the planet, and one of the most desolate. At the far end of the cylinder, offset gantries held banks of recording equipment to monitor the first firing. 

Should a typical Stark mishap occur, both ends of the cylinder were oriented along an axis that avoided the nearest large cities. Loki privately wondered if the Canadian government knew what a concession that had been from Tony, and how hard Pepper had worked to make sure of it.

Right on his traditional delayed cue, Thor rumbled, "Foster-Stark, I think."

"Damn fucking right," said Stark, brandishing his phone like a trophy. "I’ve got Branson on hold drooling for test results. If this one works even better than the last, he’s in for five engines for Virgin Galactic." The fresh bruise on Tony’s left cheek stood out, purple against his olive skin. "But I didn’t do it alone. You came up with the idea first, Janey." He glanced sidelong at Loki, who caught him at it. Stark blinked first, breaking that taut, silent moment. Then Stark looked at Banner. "Bruce-baby, what should we name our new kid?"

"An insurance nightmare, according to Pepper," muttered the physicist, looking at readouts on his own tablet. "But the power levels are ramping up nicely. Hmm? Tony? Earth to Tony."

Loki, not looking anymore, felt Tony’s next glance like a razor-edged lash across his skin, or a kiss. He wondered if either of them could easily remember the difference anymore.

#

Seven hours earler, he’d had a screaming argument with Tony back in Manhattan.

"You hate leaving the Tower!"

"You’ve made it so I don’t need to. Or often want to," said Loki, as he held up his wrists, encircled in wide, flat chains of pale gold and red diamond. "But this time I do. You owe me, Anthony Edward Stark."

Tony had said, "No. All we need is some asshat with a grudge from the Battle of New York. Or a garden variety Terran villain. Or even just a stupid accident. It’s not safe for you outside. It’s certainly not safe up at the test site."

Loki still avoided initiating physical contact with Tony, and the man hadn’t offered more than a few seemingly-accidental touches. Most of those, in the last several months. They were both battle-scarred. Both busy. But the unspoken current of ownership Tony showed, every now and then, alternately thrilled and sickened Loki. Sometimes Loki adored being one of the two hidden, cherished treasures at the heart of Tony’s empire. Odin Allfather had stolen Loki, then thrown him away. Tony Stark rarely let anything go that he loved.

Today, Loki rebelled outright.

"But it’s safe for you?" Loki was as mortal as Jane. More so. There was no Asgardian courtship or golden apples in his future. He and Tony had seen to that with the chains. He could be ended just as easily by a bullet or a microbe as a misfiring starship engine. He’d take his chances with the engine.

If humans remembered him at all, it was as a war criminal in prison, either on Earth or Asgard. Or as Stark’s mysterious and brilliant associate, who presented his scientific findings via teleconferences and identity filters. Half of the reporters thought Loki was Bruce then, anyway. Or Tony himself, further demonstrating his mad, polymath genius streak.

Loki pressed, "It’s acceptable if you blithely endanger yourself every time Iron Man goes out to fight? Leaving me here to fret like a damsel in your Tower?"

The twisted part of Tony Stark had grinned back at him, and said, "Don’t worry, Ice-Princess. You probably won’t suffer alone for long –"

And Loki had slapped him, jolted back to guilt and fear when Tony touched his bruising cheek with a wondering hand, and gave Loki an even darker, exultant look. "There’s my sweet Chaos God, waking up at last."

Loki, mortal, could still read more layers of lies than many humans. "You want me angry, on purpose, so I sulk at home. What are you hiding?"

"Me? Hide anything? I'm transparent as glass," Tony had scoffed a little too much.

But he hadn't barred Loki's way onto the Quinjet before it left Avenger's Tower in the pre-dawn gloom. Loki had stubbornly not looked at or spoken to Tony for the whole trip. 

#

Jane Foster had been good for his not-brother, Loki thought now, hiding his grin. Thor didn’t steal books from her when she didn’t pay attention to him, nor did he have fits of temper when Jane chose to share her intellectual life with those more closely matching her own gifts.

She’d been instrumental in drawing Loki out, too, once Tony had boasted of Loki’s former command of Asgardian magic. Loki couldn’t shape magic now, not with Tony’s coremetal fetters chaining him to mortality and Earth. But he’d been one of the greatest sorcerers of Asgard, and he remembered…oh, he remembered. Jane had given him new terms: ‘quantum instability’, and ‘entanglement’. They matched things he already knew.

Another eight punishing months of study, as Loki slowly connected sorcery and science through their shared mathematics. Positing a power source as far beyond Tony’s arc reactor as it was above a campfire. Then another two years of lab tests, small-scale proofs, industrial and political concessions. Webs of half-truths and truths, more intricate than many Loki had ever spun as a god. Triumphs, disasters, and unstoppable progress. Tony’s flashing grin at every moment along the way. Then, this Day.

Mortals were so fragile. Science might or might not stem the tides of global climate change. Or defend from the next asteroid strike or super-villain attack. Humanity needed other redoubts, other sanctuaries, and Jane Foster’s Terran version of the Bifrost could not possibly ferry so many billions of people to new safety. But it could open doors for other ways to travel.

So the four of them – five if one counted Thor as support staff – had forged a new thing.

A little over five months before, the first robotic small-craft test had gone to the Moon and back in three hours, its drive not even opened full throttle. Mars was suddenly within reach, the wealth of the asteroid belt, the moons of the great planets beyond. With those materials accessible, humanity had the possibility of distant foundries and vaster ships.

They needed more power and better technology, to safely cross the Void to the nearest habitable solar systems. Loki knew he would never live to see the real colony ships launch. But this would be his legacy, even if no one in the Nine Realms knew it.

#

Tony's crew stood behind the curve of a heavy, polarized plastic blast shield.

The hairs lifted on the back of Loki’s neck. It was his child, too. He knew they were not far enough away, and not altogether safe. Everyone else involved was a kilometer or two distant, watching via electronics. The rest of the Avengers waited in New York, to rebuild the team if necessary.

In bright autumn sunlight, Banner’s gaze slid mildly to meet Loki’s. The scientist gave the tiniest of crooked grins. "Given all factors, I think it should be called the Silvertongue Drive."

Loki dipped his head an equal fraction. "Too long a term, I fear, Doctor Banner."

"And just a tad bit suggestive, given that big silver rocket out there," said Tony, grinning again. "I don’t want to be explaining it to three dozen tabloids. They might get the wrong idea."

Loki could not help drawling, "You should admit, they might have some precedent for their misconceptions."

"Not for the past four years and eight months," Tony said, warm brown eyes alight with mischief. "I haven’t needed anything else."

"A terrifying miracle. At some point you two are going to have to stop flirting and get a room," said Bruce, hiding all but the faintest sour edge to his tone.

"We do not flirt," said Loki, hurt more for Bruce's sake than for his own ego. By the damned Norns, he'd even gone so far as to tell Tony outright that it was acceptable, that the two of them weren't married, that Bruce needed something only Tony might dare give. Only to have daylight-Tony lose all laughter in a grim expression. To have dark-Tony whisper into Loki's nightly dreams: _"What happens when I hurt him, Silvertongue? Because you know I will. That will be your fault."_

"Hush," said Jane. "Science is happening."

The countdown reached minus ten. Loki felt an odd shortness of breath. 

Minus 5. A soft vibration, not unpleasant, rolled down Loki’s spine.

Zero.

The big engine surged to life with a powerful, bone-jarring hum. Brilliant blue-white light reflected off the observation gantries. The mighty chains tightened and thrummed from tension, but held easily as the big cylinder thrust forward on its magnetic cradle.

No fireballs or clouds of condensation, no hundreds of tons of poisonous fuel. Just clean, powerful reactions harnessed faultlessly to humanity’s needs.

Already assured of his data, Tony turned away from the test firing and smiled back at Loki. Loki found himself matching Tony’s slightly foolish grin. 

Foster cut out the engine after a full minute. Heat-shimmers rippled the tundra air behind the engine. "Reaction stopped, no harmful radiation," she said, looking smugly at Tony. Then she gasped and grabbed Thor’s arm. "Tony, your neck!"

"What?" asked the inventor too innocently, as he tugged his hooded red parka back up to his chin.

"Hrrrrrgggggg!" growled Bruce, a green glitter ringing his brown eyes. His muscles bulged. Not a full Hulk-out, but enough to power him into a forward lunge that scooped Tony into his arms. Tony had the wisdom to go limp. Bruce yanked the parka and sweater away from Tony’s neck.

"Bruce, Bruce, it’s not what you think it is," Tony began, trying to keep Bruce from brushing the long sleeves up from Tony’s wrists. "Okay, maybe it is."

Bruce looked up at Loki then, his green-tinged lips lifted in a questioning snarl.

Polarized sunlight fell through a domed plastic shield stressed from the test firing vibrations. Where the sunlight struck Tony Stark’s neck and wrists, it revealed wide dark rings of woven shadow, precisely mimicking Loki’s own fetters.

 _"What have you done?"_ Loki shrieked.

#

Once they knew what to look for, the specific polarization was easy to recreate back at the Tower in New York.

"I’ve never seen macro-scale entanglement this precise," muttered Foster.

Bruce squinted at readouts on a holographic display. "I know. If it wasn’t suddenly personal, I’d call it another breakthrough in science-that-looks-like-sorcery." He looked up at one of the ubiquitous security cameras. "Jarvis, how long have you known?"

"I am not at liberty to divulge that information, Dr. Banner," said Tony's altogether too-smart AI assistant.

"So, for as long as Tony has." Loki did not keep the fresh betrayal out of his voice. Tony's invisible, bodiless, but eerily powerful servant had become another of Loki's friends, helping him adapt to mortality without judgment or prejudice. "Jarvis. Did you blame me?"

"Never, Master Loki. Sir was most insistent that the ultimate decision was his. As it always has been," said the AI, with as much apology as he ever manifested. Being Stark's creature, that was not much.  

"Whatever. Gimme my phone back," Tony groused as he sat on the edge of a med-bay examination table.  He was stripped to the waist, and the shadow bands showed with terrible clarity at his neck, abdomen, and wrists. "Loki, get my phone from Bruce, I still need to call Branson."

"Pepper’s on it, Stark. I can’t even find the words yet to tell her – how in the Nine Realms did you think this would play out?" Loki felt his voice lift back toward screeching madness levels. A couple of deep breaths later, he hitched up onto the table beside Tony. "Your hypocrisy is breathtaking."

"Brother, tell me what you’ve done now," said Thor, sitting quietly in a nearby chair and looking more supportive than he had any right to.

"Nothing. This time. It’s mostly Stark’s fault."

"I need you to say it. I am not wise like my Lady Jane, or Friend Bruce, or the Man of Iron. You have to tell me."

"For you, or for Heimdall?" Loki asked. He took Thor’s calm look at face value. "Very well. Some time back I gave Anthony Stark fragments of Earth’s coremetal, and taught him how to make anti-magical iron bonds that would keep my body and soul locked on Earth for the rest of my mortal life. At the moment of my death those bonds would seal what was left of my soul to the Earth’s core, and blend my powers into its own."

"A kind of suicide, which you have accidentally inflicted upon the Man of Iron, as well?"

Tony shrugged off Jane’s hands on his wrists, and flopped backward onto the table. He glared upside down at the diagnostic holographs. "Not quite an accident. To be fair, at first I wasn’t certain it might spread to me. I just had a hunch."

"In the process of forging my bonds, or later?" Loki asked icily.

"When I finished the first bracelet and brought the two ends together. Didn’t even have the lock made yet. But I felt a twinge on my right wrist. Put it down to muscle ache. I guessed when I’d made the anklets and the waist chain. I confirmed it when I welded the chains shut on you."

"And you didn’t stop?" Bruce’s outrage woke another green glint in his eyes.  "At no point in that process, did some shred of self-preservation tell you this was a really bad idea?"

Tony grabbed Loki’s left hand and twined their fingers together. "Lots of shreds. Genius, remember? Loki, you told me this was something equivalent to the way Mjolnir was forged, a working that few elves and dwarves would even attempt. I wanted to see – could a human match them? It wasn’t magic, just a weird kind of science. When I finally guessed the price? Well, it’s not like I believe in an afterlife, anyway. You didn’t know it would bind me, too, did you?"

Loki stared, half-hungry, half-terrified, at Tony’s gentle grip. The touch didn’t make him shudder anymore. He squeezed back against Tony’s hand. "If I’d had any idea, I would never have asked you to do this."

"Are we telling the team?" Jane asked Bruce.

"Telling the team what?" Steven Rogers ducked around the med-bay door. "Clint is crying up in the common room, and Natasha is pacing. I’ve never seen Natasha pace. Tony, what happened up at the test firing?"

"Friend Steven," said Thor. "We must doubly protect Loki and the Man of Iron now, for it appears that a death-blow to one may destroy the other."

Rogers sagged heavily against the door frame. "How? Wait. I don’t even want to know. As team leader, I’m grounding both of you. I should put both of you into protective custody right now."

Tony sat up. "I’m not staying in the damned Tower for the rest of my life. I’m an Avenger! I’ve been fighting for years now, and nothing’s happened."

"I take it back. I need to know _everything_. This cannot leave this room," said Rogers in a voice like cold stone. "And then it has to be a better-kept secret than Jarvis."

"Hypocrisy," Loki snapped. "Tony, if you’re not staying in the Tower, then I’m not. Make me some armor. Hook it up to Jarvis."

Thor looked as stricken as Rogers. "You’re mortal, Loki!"

"So is Stark, and I’ve had a thousand years to learn how to fight. My methods were never as much brawn-over-brain as yours. I don’t need magic to do battle. And I can be a support tactician for Captain Rogers."

Tony’s gaze was already distant. "Mmmm. A green and gold suit. I’ll admit, it’s been a secret fantasy since the Defenestration. I could put enough of your fancy new fusion batteries in it to mimic most of your old firepower –"

"Wait," said Loki, glaring down at the engineer. "You’ve been thinking about building me power armor since then?"

Tony Stark gave him an absolutely filthy, challenging grin. "Well, more about taking it off you, piece by piece –"

"I give up," said Bruce Banner. "Captain, they’re all yours."

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for the tell-don't-show narration of this chapter, but I needed to ramp up quickly. Four years of science and sexual frustration are not the real story here - it's what happens after the status quo gets shredded. Thanks for the kudos and comments urging me to write the rest of 'Earthbound', even though we kinda all know where it eventually ends. I can't promise to update it regularly, since I've got real-life editorial deadlines to meet. But this story just won't let go...


End file.
